They tried to mash something different with something similar.. I applaud them attempting to extend the online FPS genre with some unique touches.. its a shame it didnt all work out.. probably because of mismanagement on several levels.

Time will be kinder to Shadowrun.. but I'm glad they at least gave it a go.. perhaps the next time the key people will realize what went wrong and go down a different path.

Yes.

Shadowrun is still a fantastic game. Every shooter I've played could learn something from it.

Examples:

Dead players can speak to living players

As you watch someone you can spin the camera around their position, watching their back

Call for back up, assistance and give locations of enemies by tapping dpad

Your location is shown onscreen, so you know where at all times

Each map also has several landmarks, so you always know where you are

If your team is losing, the game makes it easier for you to stage a comeback. You can be resurrected more times than normal, spells cost less mana to cast and destroying a body (thus stopping it being resurrected) takes the enemy longer/more bullets.

Everything is completely balanced. Everything. Through mixing and matching the teams, you can counter anything thrown at you.

On these points, Shadowrun is the shooter by which all shooters should be judged and deserves to become a 'best in class' example for other developers.

Alas, poor Shadowrun, I did not know you.

I'm pouring one out tonight out of respect for Crimson Skies. My beloved, abused historical fiction franchise that never lived up to the promise of the first game. Radio plays in a game? Never again I fear.

I won't even get started on Mechwarrior...

Not being sarcastic.

It's very useful and doesn't spoil the game. Everyone can do it, so there's no imbalance. And because you can only rotate the camera around the person you're following - not fly around the level - you can warn him/her about imminent danger without being able to know the location of all the enemies / their tactics.

Hmmm. I'm not really a big fan of what you describe 1Dgaf... sounds like adaptive nerfing of good players/teams...

[edit] I'm ambivalent with regards to the studio shutting down... once absorbed they were just an adjunct to MS gaming division... FASA hasn't existed since that time....

it was but it tried to keep thing balanced. more often than not though it wasn't enough to turn the tide. while comebacks did happen it was usually due to a better player jumping in at the later rounds.

OMGWTFBBQ THE SKY IS FALLING.

Closing FASA doesn't mean the end of their IPs, just the end of the studio that developed them. Thankfully, Microsoft owns plenty of talented studios and probably will continue to employ key members of the former FASA. Frankly, I doubt that this closure will have any effect whatsoever on the likelihood of a Crimson Skies sequel being produced.

That's because you're a filthy cheater.

Well when it's all said and done and this goes the way of the Dodo i want another FPS that's as fun as this and with swords!

Paging Bethesda...

I'm not a fan of the dead folks talking either, but I'm pretty sure it's because "dead" means "not yet resurrected."

I do like the karma system - it's not as overbearing as you'd expect. It's tough to notice until it's a 4-0 game (at which point resurrection becomes cheap and dead bodies transfigure to steel.) It can be shut off in private matches, but I honestly wouldn't want to. Having a little help when you're getting your ass kicked in a match (especially a public one) is a good thing. The other team nearly always wins, but winning a couple rounds lessens the sting.

I didn't play enough Shadowrun to get anywhere near a really competitive level, but it had the foundation to be a very good competitive game.

The people wondering about it "punishing the winners" - it may be a valid concern but in Shadowrun's case it just wasn't true.

Every competitive game struggles with what to do once the tipping point has been reached. Once a match has been effectively decided, everyone involved starts to lose interest. It think this is most obvious in RTS games - once one player has a big enough edge in resources (and enough defense to protect them), the match is effectively decided unless you make a major mistake. For design purposes, you want to put off that tipping point for as long as possible (while still holding the players' interest).

Tweaking the amount of resources needed to clear a corpse/cast a spell is a balancing mechanism. You hope to get the balance right but having it as an option is beneficial, not detrimental.

These games keep getting more and more complex and I thought FASA did a good job with balance. Those tweaks never changed the fundamental goals of a match, much in the same way that a game with auto-respawn is balanced by respawn timers (which can be altered), bases that cannot be captured by the other team, and bases close to home territiory that are easier to defend than ones near the midline of the battle.

Unfortunately my 360 bricked shortly after picking up Shadowrun and many people seem to have moved on. Hopefully the talented people behind it find new jobs quickly. I'm sure the Shadowrun IP will remain strong despite the commercial failure of this game.

One hitch: If a Shadowrun RPG is developed for this console generation, what will they name it? And if they did, I wouldn't mind seeing the shooter/magic mechanics from this Shadowrun being used. They were highly polished.

I know that before FASA got into videogames, they were primarily a miniatures / tabletop gaming group. Does anyone know what happened to those IPs? I saw Heroclix Mechwarrior at PAX but I'm not sure if the older tabletop games continue to be supported / developed. Did FASA become digital only?

Now THAT would be cool.